My only gripe with the Starfish is, that they use Attiny85s and some ancient Anduril1 versions
I still love the Starfish Z7. It’s a pretty unique host in that you get to drive 7 5050 LEDs off a single battery, for better or worse. It is actually pretty easy to driver swap the Mateminco MT04 driver in, which at least has flashing pads for newer Anduril version updates, despite being an Attiny85 FET+1 setup as well.
Where are people getting the mt04 driver? Are they just ripping them out of hosts or does mateminco/astrolux sell loose drivers?
I have just been waiting till nealsgadgets has sales and buying a couple MT04s to steal the drivers. Sad, yes, but it is one way. 
Ah I see. Not the most cost efficient but whatever works I guess.
Could You make a write up of the whole process? I’d love a quad SFT40 light but when I just add the one from the link to cart it goes there, has a unit price, number of units is 1 but total is 0,00$. Also what did the international shipping end up as?
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I don’t know what the int’l shipping is yet–once I know what it is I’ll post it in this thread.
Did you create a Superbuy account?
Are you adding the right item to your cart?
By the way, I tried to create a Taobao account.
I even followed this guide on Reddit…
https://www.reddit.com/r/FashionReps/comments/seoqmb/guide_for_those_struggling_on_how_to_create_a/
As it turns out, to make a very long story short, I would have to input my passport number to get a Taobao account, perhaps because I live in the U.S.
I don’t have a passport, and I don’t plan on ever getting one, so I’ll never have a Taobao account, which is a shame because it’s impossible to do a proper search on Taobao without an account. 
It is possible to search Taobao with sites like Superbuy, but the search is extremely weak, and you don’t get very many hits. 
Have you tried Superbuy? It’s like a frontend to Taobao that’s auto-translated and works without an account. I think they even have a forwarder service built-in, so you buy on superbuy, they buy on taobao for you, ship to their warehouse, then ship to you. I have personally never used Superbuy fpr purchases, but I know people who have and they seemed satisfied.
Yes, did you read my post?
What I’m describing is a well known phenomenon that I have read about online.
There might be a better way to search Taobao (without a Taobao account) than using Superbuy, but I don’t know what that better way is. 
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Then I’ll be waiting for Your report when all is done 
As for searching, when the built in search is crap I sometimes resort to googling as follows “site:somesite.com your search term”
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Or if you can’t remember the syntax, use the form search here:
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Thanks for the tips!
I forgot that I could do site:taobao.com starfish z4
And I didn’t realize Google had an advanced search.
Bookmarked!
Nice! 
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Got my Starfish Z4 in the mail today. I ordered the XHP50.3 HI version so that it came with the OP reflector (the stock SFT-40 version seems to come with glossy, YMMV). Unlike my Starfish Z7, the Z4 came with a nice green AR lens, whereas the Z7 was the standard ugly purple AR lens.
The driver looks different than the Z7, but is still an Anduril 1 FET setup. I replaced it with Mateminco MT01 driver, anyway.
I swapped in some SFT-40 3000k that I got from Simon recently. I will say that this setup is throwier (because it is both deeper and wider) and less ringy than the MT04 reflector, but there is still the usual petal artifacts. Not sure what the glossy would look like with this, but wasn’t a fan of it on the MT04.
Throws a bit further than my Z7 with Yindings, with a bit less flood. Overall the Z7 beam is prettier, but it is a bulkier light. The Z4 is probably the better throw setup if you really want throw. Z7 probably doesn’t benefit so much from 7 SFT-40s because the driver can’t provide enough current off a single cell.
Compared to my my SFT-40 3000k D4sV2 mod, this seems to have more throw, tighter hotspot, while also strangely enough having a wider flood pattern too, go figure.
Other mod I just tried, I swapped in Yinding 6500k 95 CRI into my D4sV2 setup, and it throws a bit further than the SFT-40 3000ks. Throw is maybe similar to the Z4 with SFT-40 3000k. Definitely starting to like that LED more and more as an SFT-40 3000k alternative.
I would imagine SFT-40 5000ks would be even more beastly…
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I was thinking about ordering a Z7 along with my Z4 (or just getting a Z7 instead of a Z4).
What stopped me is that the Z7 has a 55mm head and the Z4 has a 45mm head, and 55mm is a bit too big for me to EDC (as I learned the hard way.) 
@horzuff
I just paid for shipping.
There were several options, but only one that was reasonably priced.
The total for shipping was $8.50 after applying a $1.50 coupon and $0.15 worth of points that they gave me for purchasing the Z4.
The estimated shipping time is 20-25 days, which I think is reasonable.
If the actual shipping is higher than expected, then Superbuy will require an additional payment from me, so the $8.50 I paid might not be the true price of shipping.
So far, the process of using Superbuy isn’t all that bad.
It’s more complicated than ordering from Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, or just about anywhere else, but I really want that Z4 and it’s probably easiest to order off of Taobao through something like Superbuy. 
Then I’ll wait til You receive it and maybe order one as well if it goes without issues
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I received my Starfish Z4 today.
I paid $29.82 for the light.
Then I paid $8.50 for shipping.
The actual shipping was less than that, so I have a balance of $0.97 in my account.
The total price should eventually be $37.35, but I haven’t tried to receive my $0.97 yet.
I used coupons that were available to me to lower the price of the light and the shipping.
The coupons might be just for new users of Superbuy–I really don’t know.
I paid for shipping on January 25th and today is March 8th, so it took six weeks to get here from when I paid for shipping.
That’s reasonable.
So far, I like the flashlight, but it’s daytime right now so I haven’t been able to test it outdoors yet.
One thing I don’t like about the light is that it steps down (big time) after a few minutes of being on high.
I don’t think it should step down because the flashlight head doesn’t get that hot on high.
I haven’t tried to do thermal configuration yet, but that might fix this problem.
My only other flashlights with Anduril are my Lumintop FW3A lights, and I’ve never used advanced Anduril settings until today with the Starfish Z4.
By the way, this website is really useful for learning Anduril:
I also would prefer a warmer tint, but I always say that about neutral and cooler tints.
I’ll post more as I use the light more, but my initial take is that I’m impressed.
Go ahead and set the temp to 70°C.
Okay, now I’ve tested the Starfish Z4 at night.
The beam pattern is not that great because it has four emitters instead of one.
Also, it doesn’t throw nearly as far as a comparable flashlight with one SFT40 emitter.
So, if you want throw, I think one SFT40 is most practical.
If you want flood with a bit of throw, one XHP70.3 HI is most practical.
If you want something in between, four SFT40 emitters is a “decent” compromise.
I say “decent” because it’s not as good as a “great” or “excellent” compromise.
I think my favorite setup is still a flashlight with a single XHP70.3 HI emitter, though the Starfish Z4 offers a lot of bang for your buck.
Two things that I like about the Z4: It has an excellent build quality, and I love the customizability of Anduril. 
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